Re: Melbourne - Metcard validation before every trip

["Mike Alexander" <malex@bigfoot.com>]

Christopher_Martin GORDON <cmgord@ecr.mu.oz.au> wrote in article
<6onoa7$3io$1@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU>...
> : It _really_ isn't that hard Paul. 
> 
> Have you tried using one of these stupid Metcards.
> With thermal printing there were out within a week.
> Validating 3 or more times a day wears out the strip.
> 
> And if you have a monthly.
> 
> Also the fact then refund for a damaged ticket takes about
> 3 weeks and there are about 1200 a week.

Oh, of course I have used them. I wouldn't be posting if I didn't have some
first-hand experience. I buy a weekly, and validate it four times a day
during the week, and up to 10 times a day during the weekend. It is just
second nature now, I don't even think about it.

Jeez, you just get it out of your wallet before you step on the tram, then
as you walk past a validator, put it in. No hassles. If you get the hang of
it, you don't even have to stop walking. It sure beats sitting there
waiting for the connie to wander up to you up to 5 minutes after you have
boarded, and then having to fumble for your wallet to get it out then.

As for the wearing out of the strip, do you mean the magnetic strip or the
printing?

If you mean the printing, then so what. It's not my problem. The display
tells me when the ticket expires, so I just read that. If the inspectors
have a problem with the printing wearing off, then that is their problem.

I have not had any problems with the magnetic strip wearing.


As for your often quoted 1200 a week eaten tickets, lets think about this
logically:

1) You are basing this on the difference between two reference codes on
letters which you received a week apart. How do you know that the reference
codes follow a simple progression. The last digit could be a checksum or
something.

2) The letters which you got were when the system was in the throes of its
introduction. I would suggest that _many_ people would have been getting
letters then for things other than chewed up tickets. For example I have
seen many people _think_ that a barrier gate has eaten their ticket, when
in fact it has just been rejected due to them not validating, and has
fluttered to the ground where they have not seen it. Also a lot (I would
suggest the majority) of cases would have been for refunds from the
machines, not for eaten tickets. With any new system you are going to get a
huge lot of complaints initially, which will then ramp down as people get
used to a system.


You know, it is a lot easier to go with the system than to fight it. Maybe
that is why you seem to be having so much trouble. But, of course, if you
have idealogical reasons, then that is your own business.

BTW, I am not arguing that the system is perfect (far from it), but I am
refuting yours and others claims that validating is the huge chore you make
it out to be.


-- 
Regards,

Mike Alexander
(malex@bigfoot.com)